ORIGIN OF CRICKET.

Otago Witness, Issue 2650, 28 December 1904, Page 56

ORIGIN OF CRICKET.

The origin of the gair-e of cricket is lost in antiquity, and the form af the game has gone through so many changes that it is not easy to determine the date at which the now national pastime really deserved its present title. Crioket in some form or another has, however, existed in "Eragdand since the middle of the thirteenth century, as is shown by the rude illustrations occurring in old manuscripts of that period which are sbiA in eixstence. These drawings depict a game i played with bat and ball, and show how both I male and female figmres engaged in practice. | Fielders, however, are not shown till a much later date, their first appearance being depicted in an old MS. in the Bodleian, Library dated 1344. All the players in this instance appear to be monks, and their costume gave rise to an error by Strutt, who, in his "Sports and Pastimes," mistook them for ladies ! But, as has already been mentioned, female figures ilo appear in tha earliest of these old drawings, and the up-to-date youug lady of the present day has, there-, ample precedent for appearing in the cric-ket field. The mo-t curious part of these ancient illustrated records of the gam© is that the batsnian is always slTown with the bat in the left hand only, rhe- reason foi which is not easy to understand. A surprising piece of intelligence with re* gard to a game that everyone nowadays (except those who look upon cricketers a3 "flannellled fools") do&s his utmost to encourage is that which is recorded in an old a^t of Edward IV. Here it is enacted that cricket shall not be played, by reason of its interference ■with arohery. Tennis we know is forbidden at certain schools, because it is sxipposed to interfere with cricket, but in olden days, when the safety of the country depended upon the skilful use of the bow and arrow, matters were different, and: stringent measures were evidently considered very necessary. Punishment for playing cricket went so fair as the infliction of three years' imprisonment, and £20 fine, upon a,nyone allowing the game to be played upon his premises, and the players themselves ■were liable to a fine of £10, with two years* imprisonment, the implements of the game bcmig confiscated and burned. Tt is not until the year 1593 that we find 1 the word "cricket" actually mentioned. It appears from Russell's "History of Guildford," that about that date a dispute arose concerning the ownership of a piece of ground in Guildford, and one of the witnesses called in the case when it came before the courts deposed that, fifty years before, he had played "cricket" upon the land in question. To Winchester belongs the aonour of hayins: first introduced the game to the publio schools of England, and it goes without sayimg that Eton, ever the friendly rival of the Hampshire School, soon followed suit. To Hampshire also belongs the honour of having founded at Hambledon in or about the year 1750 the. first real cricket club. By this time it was decided that cricket was a game worth ■encouraging, and not to be forbidden by law, and as a result other clubs were very soon started in many parts of the South of England, whence the popularity of tiie game spread over the entire kingdesj. The association of bettin.g with the gtama «f cjfkiist h act a resar noiieeabla feataua

nowaihys, but it appears that in the reign of Queen Anne cricket wa9 usually played for large stakes, and that heavy bets on the result were rather th© rule than the exception. Publicans and proprietors of cricket grounds used to arrange crioket matches^ for their own private gain, and the suspicious results of some of these contests did some liarm to the reputation of the game, with tho result that the pastime was viewed with disfavour 6y many writers of the day, who seem to have objected particularly to the intermingling of the upper and lower classes **pon the cricket field. The first preserved record of a cricket match— between Kent and All England— is «ontained in an advertisement in the General. Advertiser, from which it appears that the game was played on August 4, 1746, and that the score was kept very much asifc is at the present time. Formerly runs were simply recorded by corresponding notches car, in a stick. . It seems that the first London club of importance was that which played its matches on the old Artillery Ground, at Fmebury, and from this institution sprang the present Marylebone Cricket Olub. In 1750 the club was removed to White Conduit Fields, where it was known as the White Conduit Cricket Club, until 40 years later, when it was remAved. under its present title, to old Lord s Ground, which occupied the present site of Dorset square. There it remained -till .lß2*, at which date it was removed to iMiddle Xord's Ground at South Bank on the site of the Regent's Canal. Three years later it was removed' again io its present ground at Lord's, whence it is\never likely to deCricket has undergone many changes, even within the living memory of men of our own time for from top hats and^ tightly-fitting breeches w© have, within a comparatively few years, arrived at garments move becoming both to the game, and its players. Matches as they are pleyed to-day bear no more resemblance to the original game than, do the remarkably clever Prehistoric .feeps of "Punch" represent the actual amusements of the ancient Briton ; but one tiling is certain and it i& that to whatever country the Britisher shall set out, bo it towards the aun-parohed desert or the icy regions of the Poles, he is far more likely to forget to pack his shaving outfit than his cricketing paraphernalia. . , Although probably 95 per cent, of the English-speaking race scattered throughout the length and breadth of the Empire take a more or less keen interest in the national game, it may be. taken for granted that very few of that number know anything of^the early history of cricket (wrote "F. 8., m the Sporting Life, recently). It will, therefore be news to most people to learn that in the beginning the game of cricket was played without stumps, a fact whicn at farst sight might appear to present some difficulties. But cricket was played for many years before the now universal three stumps were considered necessary, and it appears that their introduction jwas only brought About because it was found that the original "wicket," _which, consisted merely of a -cavity hollowed out in tne ground, bad seri■ous objections. chief of th&se — although the early records of the game do not enlighten one much on this pomt — seems to have been that, irf order to get a batsman out one either had to make him send a catch to one of the field, or el&e deposit the ball within the hole which he was guarding.,- Nothing, «ne would imagine, but a daisy-cutter, badly missed, could "have very, well achieved this object, unless, perchance, a lucky shot could place the ball within the hole while the batsman was running. Under these circumstances, a batsman might easily have kept iip his wicket for an indefinite period as no doubt frequently happened, unless, indeed, he "retired hurt," which was by no means an impossible contingency, since we are told that "unseemly tussles'' betwixt batsman and fielders often took place. Bowling must have been of a necessity a slow affair, for a, fast delivery would be of no advantage, «xcept on the offchanoe of a snick into the «lips, or a smart catch at the wicket. Nor can the game have been a very interesting one to watch, as it is difficult to imagine the enthusiasm of the crowd when the ball rolled . gently into a hole in thej ground, and disappeared from sight. At anyrate, such a performance would evoke bui little applause from a twentieth century crowd, aim at the best seems but a tame ending to a possibly brilliant innings. The first "actual wicket, it appears, consisted of a single stump 18in. in height. This new phase of the game undoubtedly placed 4h& bowler on more even terms with the batsman, but as bats are described as having been large -and of great width, the exaot position of the wicket hidden from view by bo fearsome a weapon must have been an unknown "quantity to the bowler. Run-get-ting cannot, however, have been so easy -with a bat of so clumsy a description', and by Teasom of ite spoonlike blade catches must have been fairly frequent. ,No one knows at' what date the second stump was added, but when we learn that the two then existing wickets were placed no less than' two feet apart, it may be assumed that the authorities decided that it was time to take away some of the batsman's many advantages and make the game, rather more sportsmanlike. The height, however, was only lft. In the first year of the reign of good Queen Anne, a reaction appears co have set in, and the width of the wickets was reduced by 18in, and the height increased to 22in. The stumps wei-e still only two in number, but when some years later, in a match at the Humbledon Olub ; "it was observed that the ball passed twice between, the wickets without dislodging the cross-bar on the top," ifc was decided that a third stump in the centre might be an advantage to avoid misunderstandings. At this time bails, as we have them still, were introduced instead of the single cross-bar, and various alterations in height and width of wickets took plsvee from time to time bill the present dimensions were arrived at. Only one thing, indeed, seems to have remained imchangd since the earliest days of cricket — namely, the length of the pitch, which is now, as it always has been, exactly 22yds from wicket to wiclcet. Bats appear to have undergone a variety of changes up to the year 1825, when, they took the shape which has remained more «r less the same up to the present day. There is no record whatever as to the size or weight of che ea.dy crioket ball, but, judging .from the dimensions of the bat, its proportions were not of a very delicate nature. In the early days of cricket, and up to the year 1785, or thereabouts, only underhand bowling was permitted or even thought of At about "that date Tom Walker (;a |»iofessional of the old Hambledon Club) is credited with having introduced sound- arm

and over-hand bowling, but the opposition was so great on the ground that the innovation was unfair that the new style seems to have been discontinued after a very brief career. In 1805 Mr John Willes, an amateur of Kent, revived the new style of bowling, but it was not until 20 years later than the "throwing bowling" — as it was rather unkindly termed' — began to establish its position. About that time Mr Knight, of Alton, Hampshire, took it up very strongly, ' and, in suite of strong opposition, managed to prevail \ipon several clubs to adopt it. This radical "change caused a great commotion in the cricketing world, and gave to.th© bowler the advantage which for a long *jfoae«'ho had evidently been in need of. Perhaps nothing was done so much towards improving the style of both batsman and! bowler as the introduction of round-arm and over-hand bowling. At one stroke it .converted the pastime into a lively game, giving everyone concerned a much faster game altogether, and although" the improvement which it wrought took time to be properlyrecognised, its opponents had to give in eventually, and admit its superiority over the old anf! original style.

\ . Final. "- ' Tvox Lawson (America) .. .. .. 1 W.Tlutt (Germany) 2 D. J. Walker (Vie.) 3 ,-TTive heats of this race -were run. - ROYAL STAKES (Scratcli) — 4 miles. - -Prizes: First mile, £2, J. H. Sajidberg; iecond mile, £2 10s, A. J. Clark ; third mile, ~£3, and fourth mile t £3 10s, F. A. Murphy. E>~ Thomas ran second and J. H. Sandberg third in. .the final mile. Time, 9min 22 2-ssec. CARLTON HANDICAP— HaIf mile. L. Millar, 40yds 1 H. Gordon, syds .. 2 ' ~-_ -yj. J. T. Lear, scratch .. 3 |Xime,lmin 0 4-ssec. INTERNATIONAL SCRATCH RACE—I mile. £20, £12, £4. ' Final. ' Ivor Lawson (America) .. .» •• 1 i G. Farley (Vie.) .. .. 2 .W.Rutt (Germany) 3 — Won by half a length; same distance between Beccnd and third. Th. Eaiegaard (Denmark) a : 'length off, last. Time, 2min 31sec. CLARKE MILE (Scratch). y-. Final. - F. A. Murphy.. t. .. I V W. Houston 2 r_ -.B. Rolfe .. .^ 3 "JJime. 2min 30 2-ssec.

JNew Wo: ids Previous Record. Amateur. Professional, m, s. m. r. m. s.6. Shrubb29 59$ Thomas 30 17* — 7. „ 35 4? „ 36 36* — 8. „ 40 16 George 4il 575 Cura'ings 40 4p£ 9. „ 45 27? „S„ S 46 12 „ <5 4» LO. „ 50 405 „ 51 20 „ 51 PS